Rebecca Ruth Correll Cauble

Rebecca Ruth Correll Cauble passed away on August 4, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Sterling, Colorado, on May 26, 1928, the second child and first daughter of Dr. Sidney North Correll and Rev. Helen Elliott Correll. The family was in Sterling for the purpose of church-planting with the Four Square Gospel Church. As the church there was well established, the rest of the party had moved on to another field, Rebecca and her mother left Sterling to join the rest of the family a month after she was born.

In addition to her parents, Rebecca was predeceased by three brothers, Sidney Robert, Roger and Michael Correll and her sister, Roselyn Barnhart. She is survived by her loving husband of nearly 72 years, Bob Cauble, and seven children: Pamela Cauble, Patrick Cauble (Debby), Trish Rupert, Kevin Cauble (Kay), Gary, Kathy McDermott (Shaun) and Kitty Smith (Michael). Also by twelve grandchildren: Robert Gary Cauble (Amelia), Lillian Hollander (Kristen), Ariel Ayers (Chris), Kimberly Phillips (Kenny), Correll Lashbrook, Adrienne Freeman (Lee), Erin, John and Kelly McDermott and Christopher, Taylor and Graham Smith. There are ten great-grandchildren: Caitlin and Connor Ayers, Wyatt and Josie Phillips, Harrison and Theodosia Hollander, Atlas and Rorie Freeman, Miles McDermott and Madeline Smith. Becky is also survived by her sister, Penny Smith and brother, Kenny Correll.

Rebecca (Becky) and her family moved about considerably when she was a young child, having lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Cleveland, Ohio and Dayton, Ohio. The family moved to Dayton, OH when she was about seven years old where she attended Hawthorne Elementary, Col.White Jr. High School and graduated from Fairview High School in 1946. She had planned to further her education by studying Dressmaking and Design in New York City, but her father was not happy about this and convinced her to attend Wheaton College instead. In August of that year, she met Bob Cauble and it was love at first sight for both of them. After one year at Wheaton she dropped out to get her “Mrs.” Degree and she and Bob were married on August 23, 1947 and they settled in Louisville, KY where Bob worked for Eastern Air Lines. Over the next several years they lived in Elgin, IL, Dayton, OH, Louisville, KY and Columbus, OH. They moved to Charlotte, NC in 1964. Becky received a grant to attend King’s College, where she majored in accounting and computer science, graduating with a 4.0 average. Rebecca had a knack for accounting, and after graduating from King’s she worked in accounting for several companies, including Mintz Realty, Kendall Inc., Homelite Corp., H&R Block and Belk's Store Services. She retired from First Union/Wachovia Bank in 2005, after fifteen years of service in the Human Resources Department. She was very proud of the fact that when Wells Fargo Bank acquired Wachovia Bank, they offered her a job when she was 78 years old.

Becky accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior when she was very young and tried to live the Christian life all of her days. She was involved in music at a very early age. Her mother, Helen Correll, had a daily, early morning, religious radio program and standard procedure for Becky and her three siblings (born in a 4 1/2 year span) was to rise early (probably with some prompting) to sing on Helen’s program in a group known as “The Happy Family” and then get on their way to school. Growing up, she was always on call to sing at church, on her mother’s radio program (which moved to an afternoon slot), and in musical productions at school. While living in Columbus, OH, she and Bob became interested in Gospel Quartet music and got to be good friends with a group called The Golden Keys. The leader of the group was Jim Hill who wrote “What a Day That Will Be”. For two or three years they traveled far and wide to hear ‘their’ quartet and many other groups sing. During this time Bob and Becky published the group’s Newsletter and, at Jim’s request, Becky wrote the ‘liner notes’ for the Key’s patriotic LP album. When she and Bob moved to Charlotte, NC she continued singing. For several years she sang with Ernie Johnson, who played piano at the Dogwood Room in the old airport terminal. She also sang on occasion with Wendell Cunningham, Betty Sain’s Western Band and auditioned for Arthur Smith’s TV show.

Her father, Sidney, felt that travel was not only educational but that it helped develop poise and self-confidence, so he made sure all of his offspring were well-traveled. Becky started traveling when she and her three siblings took the train from Cleveland to Dayton, when they made that move. Later, when she was 16 she spent a year in Cuba, living with her missionary aunt and uncle, studying Spanish and dressmaking at the University of Havana. Bob worked for Eastern Airlines, so after they married there were many trips. By this time her parents had moved to St. Petersburg, FL, so that was a frequent destination, but there were many others trips to places, such as Germany, Senegal, California, Hawaii and Alaska.

Becky loved to sew. When the children were small, she and her girls had matching dresses and other outfits which she had made, and the boys were well supplied with shirts, pants and even a suit or two. She learned to knit while at Wheaton, so there were many socks, gloves and scarves. She taught herself to crochet and made many afghans, especially for her grandchildren. In the early 90’s Becky got involved with strip quilting and over the years made well over 350 personalized, quilted Christmas stockings for family and friends. She never sold one, but used them to say “Thanks”, “Merry Christmas”, “I Love You”, “Happy Birthday”, etc. She developed the pattern for the stockings and in 2012 she published a sewing booklet with detailed instructions on how to make her beautiful stockings. Becky loved her stockings, but her pride and joy was a huge, 3 1/2’ diameter, quilted butterfly, which she made, that hung on the wall of her sewing room for many years.

After a trip in the early 70's, Becky was bitten by the genealogy bug. She and Bob and two of their daughters traveled to Colorado to meet a part of her father’s family that she had never met before. They passed on stories of the family that were new to her and piqued her interest to dig deeper. Her research consumed many hours and involved much travel over the next twenty years or so. She was able to trace her families back many generations and in the process acquired quite a few pictures of her ancestors. She was a long time member of the Nebraska Historical Society and a Charter Member of the Olde Mecklenburg Genealogy Society.

Although she was raised in the Four Square Church, over the years she and Bob were members of several churches in Charlotte. These included Pritchard Memorial Baptist, Westside Baptist, Garr Memorial, Calvary Church and Central Church of God. For the past 25 years or so, she and Bob have been active members of Hickory Grove Baptist and were members of the Friendly Sunday School Class. Until she became pretty much home-bound, Becky was the class Choir Director and led the group in two or three verses of an old, favorite hymn.

Although she will be missed by her family and friends, she lived a long and fulfilling life.

The service to honor her life will be held at Hickory Grove Baptist Church on Friday, August 9th, at 11:00 am. The family will receive friends from 10:00-10:45 am prior to the service. Interment will be private.